Lost active duty medical records, now what?

[allansc2005]

OK folks here's a tough one.

Got a veteran who served active duty army from 1976-1979, one tour in Korea, then got out in the states in 1979. No reserve time, no further military duty.

The veteran was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea POST military, has a long history of sinus problems, BOTH in and out of the military, and his Dr. has agreed to write him a Nexus letter on the condition he can provide his ACTIVE duty medical records.

The problem is that NO active duty medical records came with his C-File! Here is a list of every place he/we have searched:

1. NPRC(no his records did not burn up there)

2. ALL VA hospitals he has been associated with, including his home town VA, the VA where he got out of the army, and all VA hospitals where he lives.

3. The VA itself told the veteran they can't find his records as well.

Also note that the veteran was NEVER hospitalized in a VA facility.

So now what? Where else do we search?

Thanks

Allan

2-2-0 HUAH!

[Berta]

He He Allan!   

The BVA might well even have a OSA award just due to buddy letters alone....I dont have time to check there today-but  a lot I learned came  from reading BVA decisions since the BVA went on line. I am at the BVA site almost every day.

I think I read one there once and if I did I sure  posted here somewhere

 

[allansc2005]

Berta, I've actually been reading the BVA decisions since the early 1990's, but none really applied to me so I kind of brushed them off.

Between Chris Attig, vawatchdog.org and military.com, all I've read are the horrors stories from veterans being denied compensation for sleep apnea, and the majority of those reasons for those denials have been:

1. Wrong, incomplete, incoherent...Nexus letters.

2. MISSING or LOST active duty medical records to reinforce those Nexus letters.

Now I don't pretend to be the best at writing, but when I saw one veteran's Nexus letter, written by a DOCTOR, and it contained more spelling, grammar, punctuation errors than a 5th grader would make, I had to shake my head!

I had to take English 100, 101, 550..in college, and wondered if that Dr. did?

Terrible disservice to that veteran!

Allan

2-2-0 HUAH!

 

 

[DLLBoatwright]

Hi Guys!

There has got to be something about serving time in Korea during that time frame, I was stationed at Camp Casey 2-2-0 my complete medical records is obsolete...Any information or leads please contact me.

 

[allansc2005]

Deborah, have you ordered your C file?

Allan

2-2-0 HUAH!

[MikeHunt]

Listen to Berta.

On 5/11/2017 at 7:53 AM, Berta said:

... don't disregard the value of those buddy letters....he has more than one- Always a good sign....

The buddy statements are sufficient for the 'in-service event.'

Lost records are 'freeing,' in that, now, have the VA show that the soldier wasn't treated for trample by a bull elephant as the buddy, and lay statements attest.

[jayb5224]

Any updates to this situation?

It may help whoever else comes across this topic looking for answers, but I requested my records multiple times from NPRC over the years and made numerous phone calls. I ended up getting a number to Randolph AFB and when I gave the lady my info she said yes sir we show to have your records here at the reserve center. I was never in the reserves, but after my tour, I had 4 years of inactive ready reserve and since I just finished that up in 2011 they still had the records. NPRC knew nothing about this and had no info on my records. Hope your outcome is successful!